Texas Equine Veterinary Association

www.texasequineva.com • 12 Equine Asthma Syndrome Ev y Cough Means Something: Sarah M Reuss, VMD, DACVIM Equine Technical Manager, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. Sarah Reuss, VMD, DACVIM, serves as an Equine Technical Manager with Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. She attended Pennsylvania State University for her undergraduate degree, and then obtained her VMD from the University of Pennsylvania. Aer an internship at Equine Medical Center of Ocala, she next completed a Large Animal Internal Medicine residency at Texas A&M University. Dr. Reuss then practiced general and specialty medicine in Spokane, Washington. Pursuing her love of teaching, she joined the faculty at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 serving as a Clinical Assistant Professor and Chief of the Large Animal Medicine Service until 2016. Dr. Reuss then transitioned to industry, first with Merial who was then acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2017. She served as a Professional Services Veterinarian until 2019 when she took on the role of Equine Technical Manager. Her professional interests include gastrointestinal disease, neurology, endocrine disease, respiratory disease, and infectious diseases of the horse and foal. She is also active in organized veterinary medicine, currently serving on the AAEP Board of Directors in addition to roles in the ACVIM, AVMA, and the Veterinary Leadership Institute. In her free time, Dr. Reuss enjoys traveling, running, kayaking, hiking, and feeding carrots to her retired show jumper. How oen do your clients call you with complaints about a coughing horse? Do you routinely ask horse owners if they ever hear their horse cough as part of your wellness exam? Any repeated cough should be considered abnormal and could be a sign of equine asthma. e terminology surrounding non-infectious, inflammatory diseases of the equine airway has changed repeatedly over the years: including heaves, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), inflammatory airway disease (IAD), and summer pasture- associated variants. Experts introduced the equine asthma terminology in 2016 to better align with both human medicine as well as to use terminology more familiar to horse owners. e syndrome is divided into two severities, with mild- moderate asthma encompassing what was known as IAD and severe equine asthma encompassing RAO. Severe equine asthma reportedly affects an estimated one in seven (14%) horses in the Northern Hemisphere, and mild-moderate asthma can affect up to 80% of horses. 1 e pathogenesis of equine asthma is multifactorial but includes specific pulmonary hypersensitivity to inhaled antigens (e.g., hay dust, mold, forage mites, spores, endotoxins, and inorganic compounds) from feed and bedding that triggers airway inflammation in susceptible horses. Classically, clinical signs are worse when horses are housed indoors for long periods, but with summer pasture associated asthma, flare-ups tend to occur in the summer months while at pasture. Subsequent to the airway inflammation, horses with severe equine asthma develop increased mucus production, bronchoconstriction, airway wall thickening, and airway remodeling.

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